Workbench

I’m starting with Lumberjocks in the middle of a project, but here goes.
The project is (I know, yet another) Roubo-style workbench, but I feel less that I’m following the crowd than following my past self: I built my my first workbench in this style while in grad school in Kentucky in 1991, after watching an episode of Roy Underhill. Truth be told, I went with this style then for simple reasons:
It was inexpensive if you used pine. We were poor in grad school!
I could mak...

I’m a big believer in iterative design: make a simple prototype, test it, remake it, test it again. That’s what I advise my students when they’re working on class projects like this one.
Fortunately, now we have digital tools so we can move quickly from iteration to iteration. Sketchup is the epitome of such tools in 3D design—as its name suggests, it’s all about making quick sketches that can at some point be exported to more sophisticated CAD/CAM or architec...

OK, so the last blog post was long on ideas and short on pictures, so here are some iterations of the wagon vise.
The first concept was to replicate in steel the approach I took in my first Roubo-style workbench in 1991, which had a dado in each side of the wagon that ran along a walnut track screwed in the sides of the wagon slot in the bench. Here’s what it looked like using angle iron instead of walnut:
As you can see, on each side I used three pieces of 3/4” angl...

I finished my workbench last night. I ‘m pretty happy with it, though there are a few things I’m going to continue to work on.
One is the wheels supporting the leg vise. I got some small rubber casters from a big box, and as it turns out they’re just not round. So I’m in the market for some better ones (suggestions on suppliers, anyone?).
The second is the $32 Shop Fox screw handles. The screws work find – the problem is that the handles are steel, with lit...

As suggested, I replaced the steel bar handles from the Shop Fox bench screws with cast-iron handwheels from Grizzly. I’m pretty happy with them, though they don’t offer the same kind of leverage as a bar.
Essentially, I just drilled a hole in the end of the screw, tapped it for a 3/8”x16 bolt, bolted the wheel on, drilled a transverse hole right where the wheel and screw met, then drove in a spring pin. Solid!
The only problem is that they stick out pretty far. If I ...